Editorials
Toronto After Dark Film Festival Event Report: Day 1
While I’ve attended a film or two at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, this will be the first time where I will be getting the full-on experience. So, instead of writing your standard collection of mini reviews of the films, which you’ll certainly be getting, I will also be focusing on the festival itself. I believe the atmosphere in which you’re viewing a movie is just as important as the movie itself…and no one can hold a candle in that department better than horror aficionados.
This sixth year of Toronto After Dark has seen a change in venues; from the Bloor Cinema to the Toronto Underground Cinema. Both theatres couldn’t be any more different. Nothing will replace the grandiose, old-fashioned feel of the Bloor but the Underground offers an intimacy better suited for a subversive line-up such as this. As you descend down the stairs, you are greeted with endless amount of posters from every era. The sound system is anything but state of the art. It’s strictly two speakers… old-school stereo, baby! These characteristics completely remind me of the types of theatres I used to go to when I was growing up. I can’t think of a better place to spend eight straight nights enduring a post-apocalypse, zombie invasions and daddy-raping psychopath (don’t ask).
The program began with a Canadian short titled, “The Legend Of Beaver Dam” and I can’t think of a better way to kick off the festivities. This horror/comedy takes the classic campfire story motif seen in countless slasher films and gives it jolting fresh spin; it abruptly turns into a hysterical, rollicking musical number. Shorts simply don’t get any better than this.
5/5 Skulls
If “Beaver Dam” didn’t get this sold out crowd riled up, the Monster Brawl intro certainly did the trick. As Festival Director, Adam Lopez was being presented the title belt from the film by co-writer/director, Jessie T. Cook, cast member, RJ Skinner (Werewolf/Mummy) came out and snatched the belt off of him. He then turned his attention to the audience and began to berate them. By the end of it, Robert Maillet (Frankenstein) and legendary WWE manager, The Mouth of the South, Jimmy Hart got onto the stage to restore order. This hysterical wrestling-style promo was the perfect way to get the audience tuned into the type of film they would be spending the next ninety minutes with.
Monster Brawl is a concept movie if there ever was one; a mash-up of WWE wrestling and classic monsters. Do you enjoy or ever enjoyed wrestling at any point in your life? You’ll most likely have to when it comes to Monster Brawl. There’s nothing resembling a traditional plot. It’s structured exactly like a PPV event. The core outline essentially consists of a monster/wrestler’s backstory, promos, tale of the tapes and then the match. That’s pretty much it. Despite all that, Jessie T. Cook’s confident direction makes it all work somehow. In particular, he seems to really be having fun playing with the backstory of these characters. The Planet Earth parody during Swamp Gut’s segment is pretty damn priceless. Wrestling fans will get a kick out of the plethora of gags sprinkled throughout that only they would recognize.
Considering this film cost $200,000 (according to IMDB), I’m extremely impressed with how well-made Monster Brawl is. The make-up and gore effects by The Gore Brothers deliver the goods. These monsters are familiar, yet at the same time, distinctly fresh takes on the classics. Thankfully, CGI has been kept to a minimum. The visuals are a cut above most indie genre titles. A Universal horror-like atmosphere is all over the graveyard tournament set. Also, the filmmakers wisely stick to wide shots, lending the film a nice scope.
While acting isn’t going to be the main focus in this type of flick, Dave Foley (“Kids In The Hall”) and Art Hindle (Black Christmas) are clearly having the time of their life, hamming it up as the commentators. Their shtick is fast and plentiful. They manage steal the show from the beloved creatures. Lance Henriksen’s brutally funny “Mortal Kombat”-like one-liners is also, a highlight. WWE alumni, Jimmy Hart (as himself) and Kevin Nash (the ingeniously named Colonel Crookshank) help add even more authenticity to the proceedings.
Even though the film begins to run out of steam during its main event, Monster Brawl is still a heck of a lot more fun than I imagined it to be. Being a WWE fan during its peak in the late 80’s, nostalgia kicked in and I succumbed to its charms. The passion and enthusiasm put into the final product is clearly visible. The filmmakers manage to take this rather basic concept and sustain the entertainment value for the majority of the running time. That’s quite an accomplishment. So, if this all sounds like your idea of entertainment, you absolutely can’t go wrong with Monster Brawl.
3.5/5 Skulls
P.S. As if the film-going experience wasn’t already enough, there was a really cool opening night party in which any ticketholder is allowed entry and the opportunity to mingle with friends, filmmakers and cast alike. Bloody brilliant!
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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